Manchester –
Pep Guardiola argue Manchester City blunt against Southampton because they don’t have a centre-forward. Man City only made one shoot on target in this fight.
Man City were held 0-0 by Southampton at the Etihad Stadium in the fifth match Premier League, Saturday (18/9/2021) evening WIB. The Citizens actually appeared very dominant throughout the 90 minutes.
They recorded possession of the ball by 64 percent compared to 36 percent belonging to The Saint. However, the blunt front line made Man City failed to convert this dominance into three points.
Man City only made one shoot on target of the 16 attempted shots they did. Some consider this situation to indicate that Man City need a new striker after the departure of Sergio Aguero to Barcelona at the start of this season.
In this match, Man City did return to play without a pure striker. Raheem Sterling became a false nine supported by Gabriel Jesus and Jack Grealish on the left and right.
Man City have been linked with Harry Kane and Cristiano Ronaldo. The transfer of the two players to the Etihad was not realized until the transfer market this summer closed.
However, the Man City manager, Pep Guardiola, denied his team’s dullness in the match against Southampton because they did not play with pure attackers. This Spaniard said that Man City failed to win because of bad luck build-up play from the back
“Today we didn’t win not because we didn’t have a centre-forward. We didn’t win because of the process build up, create and distribute the ball which is not good for the forwards,” said Guardiola, quoted from the official Man City website.
“When it’s good, you can run and get better positions. Of course, we only have one shoot on target, but there were four or five blocked in the small box.”
“But, that’s not the reason (we didn’t win). The reason is because we didn’t do build up of our back four and Fernandinho. Five people who had to distribute the ball to other players didn’t play well today.”
(pure/rin)
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